Linda Crowder - Jake and Emma 01 - Too Cute to Kill (4 page)

Jake made a call to the attorney who had handled probate for the old woman’s estate.  “Nah, there was nothing left,” the man assured him after Jake explained why he was asking.  “Between the recession and the drought forcing people to sell off their cattle, you know how bad the market is for ranch land.  I had to sell it for a song.”

Jake asked if Nick or his father had been mentioned in her will and the attorney laughed.  “She left them each one dollar just to keep them from having grounds to contest the will.  She left everything else to charity there wasn’t anything to leave.”  Jake thanked him and found himself staring at the phone again.

Nick was upset that his father had shown up at the college.  What had his father wanted at the ranch and why did he need Nick to come with him to get it?  If Nick had decided to go with his father, he wouldn’t have needed to drop out of school to do it.  No, he’d cleared out his dorm room and disappeared to get away from his father, but why and where had he gone? 

Nate Carver’s lifestyle would have inspired more than a few enemies and one of them might have decided to kill him.  To leave him tied to a bridge on the night of a public event at the Fort just didn’t strike Jake as something a drug addict’s enemy would be likely to do. 

For one thing it was risky.  How do you tie a grown man to a bridge 100 yards away from a crowd, albeit a small crowd, of people without anyone noticing you are there?  How do stab him without risking him crying out and attracting attention?   

No, thought Jake.  Either the killer was confident to the point of being cocky or he hated Nate enough to not care about the risk. Had Nick hated the father who hadn’t wanted him around and had left him in the care of people who hadn’t wanted him either? 

Jake knew Nick didn’t respect his father, but he hadn’t seen anything like the intensity of hatred in his attitude toward the man either.  Had something happened to change that in the nine months since Nick had been out of the juvenile system?

7

Christmas passed peacefully and January found Jake hard at work on a new case.  A teenager had been caught joy riding in a car he’d “borrowed” from one of his parents’ friends.  The couple had been surprised to find their Mercedes missing when they left New Year’s Eve party. 

When they called the police, they were pleased to learn their car had already been found.  They were less pleased with the extensive damage that had been done when the teen hit a patch of black ice and slid sideways off the road into a ditch.  The teen was planning to pay restitution to the owners of the car and to his parents’ insurance company, which had paid the initial repair bills.

Sheriff Newsome knocked on Jake’s open door and walked into the office.  Jake looked up from his case file and offered Reggie a seat.  “Can I get you a bottle of water or some coffee?” he asked.

“Just water, thanks.”  Jake pulled two bottles out of the small refrigerator in the corner.  Putting one on the desk in front of the Sheriff he opened the other for himself.  Seated again, he closed the juvenile’s case file and tucked it into the file drawer in his desk.

“How can I help you, Reggie?” asked Jake.  “Have you got some information on our mystery woman at last?”

“I have,” answered Reggie.  “She was identified as Sherry Thorne of Gillette.  Name ring any bells?”

Jake shook his head.  “No, I’m afraid not.  Do you know anything about her?” 

Reggie nodded.  “She was a realtor, reported missing by her office when she didn’t come in after the Thanksgiving holiday.  She lived alone so no one knew she was missing until then.”

“Did anyone see her on the day she died?” asked Jake.

“No, she wasn’t in the office that day.  There was an appointment listed in her calendar to show a house but her assistant didn’t know who the appointment was with or whether she kept it.  Gillette PD checked the house.  It was vacant, no sign of anyone having been there.”

“What about her car?”

“Parked in the Mall parking lot here in town.  Don’t know when it was parked there or what business she may have had in Casper.”

Jake sat back in his chair and mulled over what the Sheriff had said.  Gillette was two hours away.  That was a long drive when the forecast had been predicting a bad storm.  “What did you learn in the autopsy?”

“Drug overdose.  There was alcohol in her bloodstream too, over the legal limit.  Coroner was right about her dying before she found her way to your fence.”

“Did she have a history of drug use?” asked Jake.  Reggie shook his head and said that no one in Gillette seemed to remember ever even seeing her drink.  “Maybe that’s what she was doing in Casper.”

Gillette was a small town.  A professional woman wouldn’t want to be seen buying drugs.  Casper was the closest city big enough for her to be anonymous.

“We’re keeping the case open, of course,” said the Sheriff.  “Her purse is missing, though there haven’t been any hits on her credit card or attempts to access her bank account.  Whoever dumped the body probably took any cash and threw the rest away.”

“Sounds reasonable,” agreed Jake.  “Did she have any family?”

“A brother in Great Falls, Montana.  He had us ship her body up there for burial when we located him.”  Jake nodded.  He was somehow comforted by the thought that this woman had at least one person in the world that would miss her.

“Well, I’ll let Emma know you’ve identified the woman.  She hasn’t mentioned it but I know she’s been thinking about her.”

“No need,” replied Sheriff Newsome.  “I stopped at her office before I came here.”

“I’d love to be able to help you find the guy who threw that poor woman out like yesterday’s garbage, Reggie.”  Jake walked the Sheriff to the door, “But I have to be honest.  For Emma’s sake, I’m glad she had no connection to us.”

“I hear you were on the scene of that murder at Fort Caspar.”  Jake nodded.  “I was there myself earlier in the evening.  Shame this had to happen at the Fort.”

Jake agreed.  “Unfortunately, this time I did know the victim.”

“Yes I heard,” mused Reggie, “Father of that Carver kid you represented.  What was it, eight years ago?”

“That’s right,” said Jake.  “You were on the force then, weren’t you?”  Reggie agreed that he was.  “Sad case, that one.”

Reggie put his hat back on.  “I’m not surprised the police haven’t located the kid yet.  If I were him, I’d have hit the road after taking out my old man and I’d never look back.”

He shook hands with Jake and left him standing in his office door.  “I don’t like it,” Jake mused aloud.  As a defense attorney, he was used to crime being at a comfortable distance.  He didn’t like it coming so close to home.

He shook his head and walked back to his desk.  He pulled out the juvenile’s case file and tried to focus his attention on it but his mind kept traveling back to Sherry Thorne.  “There’s something we’re not seeing.”

8

“Let’s go for a drive.”  Emma looked up from her crossword puzzle at Jake, who had been reading the sports section and had just thrown it down. 

“Did you have someplace in mind?” she asked.

Jake looked sheepish.  “I was thinking about going up to Gillette.”  Emma raised her eyebrows and tilted her head questioningly at her husband.  “I know it’s a long drive but I just can’t get Sherry Thorne out of my head.”

“What good will it do to go to Gillette?  The Sheriff said no one there was aware of her drug use.”

“I’m not sure,” Jake admitted.  “I don’t know what it is, Em, but something about her death just doesn’t feel right.  I thought if we went up there, talked to some of the people she knew…”

Emma smiled.  “If you want to play Sherlock Holmes, I’m game to be your Doctor Watson.  Besides we’ve been meaning to go up and try out Rick and Judy’s bed and breakfast.”

“Perfect, I’ll give them a call and see if they have room for us,” said Jake, picking up his cell phone and looking up the number.  He nodded at Emma as he chatted on the phone with Rick and she went into the bedroom to pack an overnight bag.

She couldn’t see that going all the way to Gillette was going to answer whatever nagging question Jake had about the realtor, but she was glad for the chance to see Rick and Judy again and take a look at their new venture.  Judy was a social worker at the hospital when a horrible crash occurred on the interstate.  The emergency room had filled with casualties and Judy had spent hours sitting with family after family, helping them cope.

After that incident, Judy, along with many of the first responders and caregivers had needed counseling to deal with the secondary trauma.  Emma was on the mental health team that volunteered to provide that counseling. 

During her sessions, Judy had come to the conclusion that she needed a break from social work.  Her husband, Rick, was general manager at a large hotel and had dreamed of someday owning his own place.  Together they decided to open the bed and breakfast.  This would be Jake and Emma’s first stay.

Jake came in as Emma was zipping the suitcase.  “I called Kristen,” he said, referring to the teenager who usually took care of their animals when Jake and Emma traveled.  “She asked if she could just stay here overnight.”

“Big party?” asked Emma, amused.

“Big paper due,” responded Jake.  “I talked with her dad and he said it would be doing Kristen a favor to give her some peace and quiet.” 

Kristen was the oldest girl in a family of eight children.  Her house was a happy, boisterous one but not conducive to study.  Kristen hoped to win a scholarship to major in veterinary medicine so she was working hard at her studies this year.

“Sounds like a win-win,” agreed Emma.  “I packed you something a bit special for when we get there.”

Jake grinned, picturing Emma wearing something black and lacy.  Emma giggled, “Not that kind of special.”  She handed him the toiletries bag and Jake opened it with a disappointed look on his face.  Then he laughed.  Emma had packed a magnifying glass.  “Sherlock Holmes would never leave home without it!”

Three hours later they passed the “Welcome to Gillette” sign and started looking for the bed and breakfast.  They found it, a large rambling old home on two acres just outside of town.  Tourists would stay at the inn on their way to and from Devil’s Tower, 61 miles to the east.

Rick waited for them on the porch as they pulled into the small parking area.  Jake fished out the overnight bag while Emma threw her arms around Rick.  “It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed.  “It’s just perfect.”

Rick smiled.  “Wait until you see the inside,” he told her.  He shook Jake’s hand and took the bag from him over Jake’s protests.  “You’re my guests here, you get the royal treatment.”

They walked into a spacious foyer.  A desk in a sitting room on the left served as both office and check in area.  A large living area opened up on the right, with a friendly blaze crackling in the fireplace.

“It’s still perfect,” pronounced Emma.  “Where’s Judy?”

Just then, a tall slender woman in a full apron came in from the back of the house where Emma supposed the kitchen must be.  “Did I hear my name mentioned?  Emma, Jake how wonderful to see you.”  Judy hugged them both.  “I was just starting some chili for tonight’s dinner.  Can I get you something?  You must be starved.”

Emma smiled.  She didn’t know how Judy stayed so slim when she loved food so much.  She was a famous cook though and she was right, Emma was hungry.  “I thought you didn’t serve lunch,” she said.

“Oh, that’s just for the guests.  You’re family.”  Judy linked arms with Emma and walked with her back to the kitchen.  “You boys get them settled in their room then come down and join us.” Jake and Rick headed upstairs while Emma took a seat at the big farmhouse table and watched as Judy made sandwiches.

“Are you sure I can’t help?” she asked.  “I feel guilty just sitting here watching you work.”

“Nonsense,” answered Judy.  “It’s a pleasure to do for someone who’s done so much for me.  Oh, don’t you deny it, missy.  I was in the business too and I know when someone is just going through the motions and when they really care.”

Emma blushed, but accepted the compliment with as much grace as she could muster.  Like so many who spend their days helping other people, Emma was far more praising than being praised.  “I love your place,” she said, hoping to change the subject.

Judy smiled and looked around her kitchen with pride.  “You wouldn’t have thought when we bought the place it would fix up so well, but Rick knows his business.”

“You didn’t do all the work yourselves, did you?” Emma asked, impressed.  She knew the couple had found the house after scouring the state for a property they could both afford and make profitable.  This house had gone back to the bank in payment of a reverse mortgage when the elderly widower who had owned it died.  The house had been structurally sound but cosmetically, Emma knew it had needed a lot of work.

“Most of it,” Judy said.  “I learned how to lay tile and change out a light fixture.  I even got over my fear of ladders so I could help Rick shingle the roof.”

“Impressive,” said Emma.  “I don’t mind going up the ladder but the moment when you take your first foot off the roof and you’re hunting with it for the top rung of the ladder….” Emma shuddered.

“Oh I hate that,” agreed Judy.  “I’m always sure I’m going to push the ladder away and either fall off the roof or get myself stuck up there.  Thank God this roof has a 30-year lifespan.  By the time it needs replacing again, I won’t be the one going up there to help do it!”

“There’s always the roof on the chicken house,” said Rick, coming into the room in time to catch the women’s conversation.

“That’s your job,” said Judy.  “I’ll stand at the bottom of the ladder and toss supplies up to you.”

“You have chickens?” asked Jake.  “Emma and I have talked about getting chickens but we’re not sure we’re up to all the work.”

“They are some work, that’s for sure,” agreed Judy as she served out soup and sandwiches.  “But you will never taste anything better than farm fresh eggs.”

“Emma was all excited about chickens until she made the mistake of reading a book about raising them.”  Jake thanked Judy and sat down to the delicious soup.  “Never read about anything before you do it.  Just dive right in, I always say.”

Rick laughed, “Diving right in cost us two-thirds of our flock.  We kept losing birds until we figured out what was getting into the hen house.”

“We did have a bit of a fox problem,” agreed Judy.  “And we lost two this winter to the cold but we think we’ve got that problem solved now.”

“Do you eat them?” asked Emma.  “I may be a hypocrite, but that’s my big problem with getting chickens or raising a steer or pigs.  I don’t want to eat someone I know.”

Rick laughed, “Then don’t get cozy with them.  Don’t give them cute little names.  When I was growing up, my father raised two pigs a year for household use.  He called them Ham and Bacon.”

Conversation subsided while they did justice to Judy’s cooking.  After lunch, Emma insisted on doing the dishes to give Judy time to make her amazing home baked bread.  Rick took Jake out to show him the chicken house as the two men talked about what it would take to raise a small flock.

“So what brings you to Gillette?” asked Judy, her hands busily kneading dough.

“Well, you know we’ve been wanting to come see your place and visit with you and Rick.”  Judy nodded.  “But Jake also wanted to find out more about a realtor whose body was dumped on our fence line right before Thanksgiving.  She was from Gillette.”

Judy stopped kneading.  “Oh my God, I had no idea that happened at your place.”

“Yes, we found her in the morning after a big snowstorm.  The police think she died of a drug overdose and the people she was with got scared and dumped the body.”

Judy looked puzzled.  “I hadn’t heard that part.  Our paper covered her death, of course, but I haven’t seen anything since the discovery of the body.  Are the police sure that’s what happened?”

“As sure as they can be.  They don’t have any leads on who she may have been with or who took her body up the mountain to our house.”  Emma finished drying the last dish, hung up the towel and turned to face Judy.  She noticed the older woman’s face had turned pale.

“I’m sorry, Judy,” she said apologetically.  “You must have known her and here I am rattling on like this.”

Judy shook her head.  “No, it’s not that.  We did know her but we didn’t know her well.  I’m just surprised, that’s all.  She didn’t strike me as the type of person who would do drugs.” 

She put her hand up, coated in flour, to stop Emma’s objections.  “Yes, I know, anyone can be the type.  It’d curl your hair to know how many of our community leaders I saw come through the emergency room with some substance or other in their systems.”

“How did you know her?” asked Emma.  She poured herself a cup of Judy’s good coffee and sat on a barstool where they had eaten lunch to listen.

“She was the realtor representing the bank when we bought this place,” answered Judy. 

“What was she like?”

“She was a real barracuda,” said Judy.  “I suppose I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but in her case, I’m not saying anything I didn’t say while she was still alive.”

“What did she do?”  Emma was surprised at how forceful Judy’s voice was.  Judy, who was so calm and cheerful and had a manner that was more soothing than confrontational.

“When you buy a bank owned house, you expect it to be pretty much ‘as is.’ Well, our inspector turned up a couple of things that were real health hazards and we wanted the bank to fix them.”  Judy paused, remembering the struggles between their realtor and Sherry Thorne.

“That woman pulled every trick in the book to get the bank out of doing the work even after they’d agreed to it.  We almost walked away from the sale because we were afraid of what else might be wrong that the inspector hadn’t found.”

“But if the bank had agreed to the repairs, wouldn’t it be violating the contract for her to keep them from doing them?”  Emma wished Jake were there to answer the legal question.

“Oh, I don’t say she did anything illegal,” Judy said begrudgingly.  “She just pushed every line she could find.”

“Did the bank end up doing the work?” asked Emma.

Judy smiled.  “Yes they did.  Our realtor had closed deals with her before so he had her number.  She tried like crazy, but she didn’t get anything past him.”

Later that evening, after they had retired to their room, Emma told Jake about her conversation with Judy.  He nodded.  He’d had pretty much the same conversation with Rick. 

“He agreed with Judy though.  Our Sherry Thorne was ruthless but she was sharp.  He didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to do drugs – especially with the kind of people who would dump her on the side of the road if something went wrong.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” quoted Emma.  “So what’s the plan for tomorrow, Sherlock?”

“Tomorrow we’re going to talk to the people at her realty office,” answered Jake.   Emma wanted to remind him that the police had already done that, but she was too tired to argue and the bed was too soft and inviting.

She snuggled under the comforter and put her head on Jake’s shoulder.  “So did you and Rick come to any conclusions about chickens?” she asked.

Jake smiled in the darkness.  “I thought we’d come back when Rick has some hatchlings to show us.”

“How do we keep them from becoming kitty toys?” Emma wondered aloud, but she was asleep before Jake could answer.